Fall Is

Fall happened today.

It showed up like an invited guest.

We had been waiting.

 I look forward to my daily spin wrapped in cool crispness.

The Man journeyed out for his own spin.

Heading north on Highway 1.

 

 

 

Fall is in the air.

September 23, 2019

Learning Lessons

Stanislaus National Forest, CA

Herring Creek Road campsite
&

Fence Creek Campground

8/20/17 -8/25/17

Total Eclipse. Totally cool. Sure, we should go. That was our thoughts at the end of July.

Sure, The Man and Z. were taking the travel trailer to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Nevada for Speed Week and would be gone for a week. But, hey, they'd be home five days prior to the Eclipse leaving plenty of time to clean the RV, refuel, repack, and drive to eastern Oregon.

Sure, the truck was scheduled to get new robust tires three days prior to the Eclipse leaving us only two traveling days, but, hey, sleep is over-rated anyway.

Sure, I wasn't able to find any souvenir commemorative solar eclipse glasses in time for the viewing but, hey, The Man had welding helmets with the approved filters. Still good to go.

No problem, except for, you know, the "million" people predicted to show up and we would all be driving along the same roads. We scuttled our plans when we read that every field, every inch of ground, in the small towns of eastern Oregon were being turned into camping and parking spots. Good luck finding a campsite in the National Forest.

So instead we headed to the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains and found an empty patch of ground in an empty forest all to ourselves to watch the (perfectly okay) partial eclipse.
 

When the eclipse was over, it was a short walk (or ride) to Herring Creek for a little fishing.

A much quicker return trip back to camp when the rain, thunder, and lightning started.

That night it was too soggy for a camp fire so for dinner I coated the freshly caught fish with yogurt, rolled it in crushed TJ's Salt & Pepper Potato Chips, and pan-fried it. To make it a one pot meal, I added - Spanish rice, kernels of sweet corn, and chopped artichoke hearts - items I had precooked at home. I briefly thought a picture would've been nice but we were already scraping the crusty chips and bits from the bottom of the pan.

The next day we packed up in search of other campgrounds and trout streams.

Donnell Lake

  

Wildfire off in the distance

Fence Creek Campground and our campsite

When we first got to Fence Creek CG we noticed just one other occupied campsite with a tent and in another section of the campground a group of National Forest Service firefighters with their numerous tents. There was only one NFS guy, all alone, watching over the empty tents and gear. It turns out that the wildfire smoke we saw from Donnell Lake was just a few miles away from the campground and the firefighters were there monitoring and controlling the burn.

The next day the tent campers were gone. It was very quiet and it felt like we had the entire area to ourselves. Our one night turned into three nights and each day we paid an additional $8 camping fee.

While The Man headed out on the Honda trail bike to fish for our dinner I stayed back at camp and taught myself how to spin yarn with a Louet Drop Spindle, wool fiber, and Abby Franquemont's Respect the Spindle book. Before we left home I had read most of the book and watched a few of Abby's video tutorials on YouTube.

The Louet spindle is considered to be a Beginner's spindle, at almost 3 ounces, it's heavy, and heavy-duty. It held up well to my clumsy attempts and survived the hard whacks against the picnic table, the multiple drops, and flying out of my hands and into the nearby bushes.

By the third day I was making thick and thin yarn (while striving for consistency) and quite pleased with myself. It was getting easier and easier to keep the spindle aloft and spinning like a top, tethered by spun yarn.

In between my crash course in spindling yarn we unhitched the Travel Trailer from the truck and headed higher in the mountains up towards Sonora Pass. This road prohibited long vehicles, RV's, and trailers (read: very narrow, very twisty road).

(In case you were wondering why there's a tiny motorcycle mounted to the front of The Man's truck, well, that's a whole 'nother story....)

And then on the way back to camp, more fishing (and spindling), and that night freshly caught fish cooked over the campfire. Here's a tip: You really shouldn't eat more than two four toasted marshmallows.

The next morning, Friday, I thought it would be a good idea to find another campsite for our last night. We'd spent three nights at Fence Creek CG, all alone except for the NFS Firefighters (who were so tired after a long day we never heard a peep from them when they came back to camp), beautiful fishing streams with hardly anyone around, freshly caught trout for dinner, cool sunny weather. Let's leave.

It made perfect sense to me to leave our campsite and head down to the area around Bass Lake and Yosemite. On a Friday. During the summer. Peak tourist season. The trek did not end well.

Okay. So. Here's my side of the story: I didn't know that The Man researches all the campsites in the area before we head out the door. I thought it was like the good ol' days of traveling in our VW camper bus and we traveled wily-nily in that we head off in one direction and then after awhile we stop and camp. I didn't know there was a Plan.

The Man did not enjoy pulling the travel trailer on the curvy narrow roads to Oakhurst ("California's gateway to Yosemite"). We drove through the area transformed by the Detwiler Fire in July. It was scorched earth for as far as we could see.

Needless to say the town of Oakhurst was jammed-packed with people and cars. We huddled in a back parking lot near the library and came up empty for anywhere to go. We headed home. The drive home was not enjoyable, let's just say it was a bit frosty.

Good news: I'm sure we'll go camping again. That is, when The Man comes home from his solo camping trip.

Lost in Translation

The Summer Series continues whereby I recap an earlier story ~

July 16, 2017 Sunday

The Man left first thing in the morning with his truck along with his V-Strom motorcycle in the bed of the truck. It would take him 6 hours to drive north to his starting point in Redding, California. He had reservations for one night at the Ramada Inn. The hotel welcomed him to park his truck for the entire week he'd be wilderness tent camping on the motorcycle.

July 17, 2017 Monday

No word from The Man.

July 18, 2017 Tuesday

In the afternoon The Man called from a City Park in the small town of Etna, CA. I asked him about his stay at the Redding Ramada. I was curious how things went unloading the heavy motorcycle off the back of his truck. He said he had gotten up early in the morning because he needed to park the truck a little bit on the grassy lawn to make unloading the motorcycle easier. He was hoping no one would see him parked on the lawn. Just as he was getting the bike ramps out of the truck the sprinklers came on. The water went every which way. It sprayed him, the bike, the truck, the road, everywhere. He had to wait for the sprinklers to turn off before he could continue to unload the motorcycle. He saw the Harley-Davidson bikers watching him from their hotel window. The Man said it went smoothly.

He asked me what I was up to and I probably talked about the weather, the animals, and my latest knitting projects, "blah, blah, blah". When I was done he told me about his night.

Monday night he camped at Big Flat Campground off Coffee Creek Road not too far from the Pacific Crest Trail.

Around 11 pm he was awakened by a black bear trying to get into his metal motorcycle pannier cases sitting on the ground. It's where he keeps his food. Although it was 30 feet away from his tent it was still too close for comfort. He shined the flashlight on the bear and started to "TSCH, TSCH", like, you know, the Dog Whisperer. Maybe he should've said "Shoo, Shoo" because the bear did not like "TSCH".  It turned to The Man "it's eyes as big as yellow tennis balls" and started to shake his head side to side and paw at the ground. "It looked like it was getting ready to charge." He had his bear deterrent in hand and when the bear heard the metallic click it turned and walked away from The Man but continued to roam around the campground through the night.

The Man did not sleep for the rest of the night.

The next day he talked about his experience to a few of the campers and hikers he met and learned that it might have been the resident bear making it's rounds. Another person later told him that bears that have a history of being a "problem" in more populated campgrounds around the state are brought to the area where The Man was camping.

One woman hiker mentioned a Ranger told her to keep her food in the tent with her so the bear would smell her human scent and leave the food alone. The Man diplomatically told her she should probably check with someone else. I said, "That's crazy!"

He said she was from Australia.

"Oh, well, that makes sense", I said. "She's from Australia, Down Under, they've got everything backwards." We laughed, but we also hope she starts hanging her food in a not-too-near-to-her tree.

The Man ended our call after that, he was going to visit Etna Hardware & Sporting Goods to see if they had a small air horn in stock. "It's supposed to scare bears away", he said. I was looking at the town map via Google Maps while I talked to him and told him he needed to drive down Diggles Street to Pig Alley to get to the Hardware Store. I sent a picture of the map in case he didn't believe me.

Spork and Beans

The Summer Series continues whereby the Great Outdoors is calling ~

Last month, The Man double backed to the High Sierras for another solo trip. This time it was a 5-day trek, as in the previous post, he left soon after coming home from our RV trip.

Cell phone reception is sporadic in the high mountains so we're not able to talk every day. When The Man gets me on the phone we'll go over his route together. For the most part his itinerary is made while he's on the road, i.e. - he's "winging it".

During our conversation we go over the direction he's headed and the roads he'd like to take. Map reading is not my strong point but eventually I'm able to follow along using Google Maps. The Man sketches his travel with the aid of his iPad's downloaded maps and the big red California Atlas. From the vantage point of my cushy desk chair I read him the descriptions about campgrounds in the area. While we're talking I take written notes so that I will have his last known whereabouts recorded, you know, just in case.

Monday 6/12/17

5:54 pm

BBQ tri-tip? Don't mind if I do!                        8:16 pm

Tuesday 6/13/17

Young family marveling at the splendor of B. Beenie   9:57 am

Wednesday 6/14/17

8:18 am

B. Beenie anticipating a delicious fresh caught dinner!   6:09 pm

Thursday 6/15/17

B. Beenie marveling at the view from Sherman Pass.   10:23 am

12:41 pm

B. Beenie thanking the road crew for clearing the fallen trees from the road.

3:10 pm

 5:29 pm

Pssst. Am I the only one to observe that The Man opts to leave for solo trips just after spending time with me in our 19-foot travel trailer? Yeah, you're right, silly me, it must be my imagination.